“The Mexican gray wolf reintroduction project is one of the most (if not the most) controversial and contentious species recovery efforts in the country; and the Mexican Wolf-Livestock Coexistence Council’s construction of an appropriately incentivized and balanced model for working landscapes represents a truly vital step in the advancement of conservation efforts consistent with the group’s stated vision of simultaneously supporting viable ranching, self-sustaining wolf populations and healthy western landscapes.”

- Larry Voyles

Director

Arizona Game and Fish Department

Self-Sustaining

Wolf Populations

Viable Ranching

Our plan is designed to reduce livestock/wolf conflicts and the need for management removals of depredating or nuisance wolves. In addition, our program will support livestock producers, the values embedded in the western landscapes, and the growth of wild Mexican wolf populations through natural reproduction and recruitment.

Guided by three interdependant goals (healthy western landscapes, viable ranching, and self-sustaining wolf populations), we have developed a unique and innovative program based on a review of compensation plans from around the world coupled with the collective experience of ranchers who have been living in wolf country, as well as program managers skilled in the use of conflict avoidance and compensation measures.

After the first fifteen years of reintroducing Mexican wolves to the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, finding a solution to long-standing conflicts with ranching is possible and essential for the future of the wolves and those who live on the land.

"Recovering the Mexican wolf must be accomplished on a working landscape. Together, through stakeholder collaboration, we can achieve a balance of activities that sustain economically viable ranching operations and a genetically robust population of wild wolves. This plan is a significant step in that direction."

- Dr. Benjamin Tuggle

Southwest Regional Director

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

"The long-term vision of the Coexistence Council is an excellent model that will reap benefits for people and natural resources now and far into the future."

- Cal Joyner

Regional Forester for Southwestern Region

USDA Forest Service

Healthy Western

Landscapes

Healthy western landspaces are vitally important to the environmental, social and economic fabric of the Western states. Ranchers, conservationists, land managers and the public agree that such important areas should be managed to help maintain or restore functioning ecosystems.

Working ranches are an important part of the American West. In the American Southwest, many ranches include or abut expansive landscapes that are important to the recovery of endangered Mexican wolves. However, wolf presence brings new and unwelcomed challenges, as well as finanical impacts to